Marlin the Elite
Marlin the Elite is a popular machinima made by Thomas Productions, using the Halo 2 and 3 engine. It is based around Marlin, an Elite that some may call dumb. It would be placed in the Comedy genre of machinimas. For more information on Marlin the Elite and other works by their creators, you can subscribe to the Thomas Productions Podcast (called the TPCast) on iTunes, or go to their website (www.thomasproductionsinc.com) http://www.thomasproductionsinc.com. To view the episodes, click here. Introduction Marlin the Elite follows the story of Marlin, as he goes on crazy adventures throughout different places with different people. The Marlin series has a relatively large fanbase. The episodes are usually around 7-10 minutes long, and the shorts are usually around 2-6 minutes long. Each season (the show is currently in it's second) is ten episodes long. In every episode, someone that Marlin meets will die, whether it's an explosion, or something more humorous. This excludes Lemon Man and Marlin's grandmother Characters Marlin Marlin has appeared in all episodes. He is somewhat dumb, and comical without knowing it. He is the star of the series. He is played by Layne. Billy-Bob Billy-Bob is Marlin's friend, even though he doesn't like Marlin. He appeared in the first episode. He was killed by exploding barrels. Renter Guy The Renter Guy, as he is known, rented a Warthog to Marlin in Episode 2. He got ran over multiple times, until finally dying from a Warthog explosion. Furniture Guy The Furniture Guy ran a furniture business, and sold illegal drugs, in Episode 3. He died when he tried to save his drugs from an explosion (caused by Marlin). Hotel Manager The Hotel Manager rented a room to Marlin in Episode 4. He died from a plasma grenade explosion, which was set off by Marlin. Nurse The Nurse worked at a rehab facility and helped to nurse Marlin back to health in Episode 5. The Nurse ended up suiciding from a frag grenade explosion. It is still unclear if the nurse was a man or a woman. Roberto Roberto was Billy-Bob's brother and set out to get revenge on Marlin in Episode 5. He died from a mini-nuclear explosion set off by himself. Mayor (also known as Mr. Mayor) The Mayor of Headlong shunned Marlin after an incident with a tank in Episode 6. He was killed by Marlin and his Brute Shot. Grandma First seen in episode 7 (but briefly mentioned in episode 6), Marlin's grandma is an old purple Elite who carries around flame grenades wherever she goes. She loves Marlin, but doesn't really care for anyone else. She was seen in A Message From Marlin: Thanksgiving at her house in Guardian, and was last seen in episode 9. it has been confirmed that she will appear in Season 2, but the actual episode number is still unknown. Grandpa Not a major character, Marlin's grandpa (and grandma's current husband) was only seen in the Thanksgiving special, and is almost as dumb as his grandson. He catches a Turkey (Spartan) for every thanksgiving with his shotgun, and recently destroyed the kitchen with a live grenade he thought was an apple. Ghost Dealer Marlin was teased about having a Mongoose, so he went to Valhalla to buy a Ghost. The dealer there is a very unfriendly person, who has no money and hasn't made a sale in a very long time. He always wanted to play Gears of War, but ever got to, because he was killed by a dysfunctional Ghost. Lemon Man Lemon Man, whose real name is supposed to be revealed in episode 13, was first seen in episode 9. He pulled a prank on Marlin by sending him to a closed area, but became his friend id episode 10. He has appeared in every episode since. MORE COMING SOON Character Quotes Ep. 1 "Is that even legal?" - Billybob, after Marlin declares that he will camp out in front of Billybob's house. "Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong!..." -Marlin Ep. 2 "I forgot to tell you that this 'Hog has no insurance!" Ep. 10 "McDonalds." - Tour Guide Episode Chronology: Season 1 Episode 1 (Halo 2) Marlin gives a tour of his penthouse, and then heads over to his friend's house. It turns out that his friend doesn't like Marlin very much, and ends up getting killed because of Marlin. Episode 2: The Dunes (Halo 2) Marlin takes a train ride to a local city that is host to some dunes. Marlin, being as reckless as possible, totals the car he is given in the dunes. He is given a fine of 600 McBillion dollars, a running gag in the series. Episode 3: Marlin Gets a Job (Halo 2) Marlin, realising that he needs some furniture, sets out to buy some. It turns out that he needs money to buy some, so he gets a job as a construction worker, but ends up in a small drug-related company. Realizing what must be done, he takes action and destroys the drugs, killing the dealer in the process. Episode 4: Marlin's Road Trip Vacation (Halo 2) Marlin realizes that he has been going on almost a killing rampage, so he decides to take a vacation to get away from the madness. He checks in a hotel, and clogs the hotel's famous Manurefall. When it ends up unclogging itself, Marlin accidentally kills the hotel owner. He flees, and gets run over by a train. Episode 5: Roberto's Avenge (Halo 2) After the trauma of getting hit by a train, Marlin checks into rehab at a beautiful rehab center. He is then relocated to a much lower-grade facility, where he meets his friend's Billy Bob's brother, Roberto. Roberto wants to avenge his brother, by killing Marlin, but ends up killing himself. Episode 6: Moving (Halo 2) Marlin wants a new vehicle, so he steals a military tank. He uses it to destroy the town, and the mayor stops him. Marlin is then evicted from his town. Episode 7: Marlin's New House (Halo 3) Marlin's grandma helps him look for a new house. He looks in Valhalla, where trades one of his precious Warthogs for a Mongoose, and then finds a small, cozy room in the friendly neighborhood of The Pit. Episode 8: The Dealership (Halo 3) Marlin is teased for being an Elite and owning a Mongoose, so he is pressured into going to a dealership. He ends up destroying all of the Ghosts there, and the Ghost dealer is also killed. Episode 9: The Playground (Halo 3) Marlin's new neighbor, nicknamed "Lemon Man" for his yellowish appearance, tells Marlin about a new playground. Marlin's grandma drives him there, where he is shot at a lot but not killed. He and his grandmother are kicked out of the playground. Episode 10: The Elite in Pink (Halo 3) Lemon Man tells Marlin about a new crashed Pelican. He goes to check it out, where he meets a pink Elite. He chases the Elite around, thinking that it's a cute girl, and asks to be friends. The Elite ends up being a man, and Marlin runs away. Episode Chronology: Season 2 Episode 11: The Tryouts (Halo 3) Lemon Man tells Marlin about the age-old sport of "Rocket Baseball". Marlin is up for tryouts, and journeys to Standoff for them. When he incredibly makes the team, he spoils it by killing the team captain during practice on the day of the big game. The coach is also killed a few moments later, by Marlin again. Episode 12: A Real Job (Halo 3) Marlin learns that he needs to pay off his first mortgage, so he gets a job as a high school chemistry teacher. He doesn't know a thing about what he's supposed to be teaching, so he takes the teens out to teach them about rockets. The roudy students end up killing each other, and Marlin is fired on the spot. Episode 13: Unlucky? (Halo 3) The latest Marlin episode, this one was released simultaneously with another Marlin video (see Fan episode below). It starts out with a crook from the Pit stealing Marlin's Mongoose. Lemon Man aids him in getting it back, but when it explodes, Marlin realises that he has bad luck. So he goes to a scientist so that tests can be performed to see if he really is unlucky. This somehow turns into a wild Mongoose/Warthog chase scene, and one of the funniest endings of all time! Episode 14: ??? (Halo 3) An informational video about how to participate in this episode was released alongside episode 13. Fans must have a valid YouTube and XBL account, join the Marlin Fan Episode group on YouTube, and simply state their username. The first 13 fans to sign up will get to be in the episode. It has to do with something most people find "delicious", such as candy or cake. Episode 15: ??? (Halo 3) Unreleased on the internet, this episode is said to take place in a map never used before for this machinima. The episode may also not begin in The Pit, and may be related to an earlier episode, such as episodes 3 & 12 were. Episode 16: ??? (Halo 3) Unreleased on the internet, this episode is as far into the future as Thomas Productions has announced (although there will be 4 more episodes after that for season 2). It will be very similar to episode 15, and may even be a kind of continuation. Holdiday Shorts Marlin the Elite is also famous for doing short episodes for each holiday. These shorts are called "A Message from Marlin: (Holiday Name). So far, only Layne has been in a Marlin holiday short; the other two people that make the Marlin show (Kevin and Kyle) are not present in any of these. A Message From Marlin: Halloween Marlin, dressed in a Halloween costume, attempts to teach you how to be safe while you Trick-or-Treat. A Message From Marlin: Thanksgiving Marlin's grandpa catches a good dinner, and he, Marlin and Grandma have a Thanksgiving dinner. A Message From Marlin: Christmas Marlin quizzes Santa Claus to see if he is real or not. A Message From Marlin: Valentine's Day Marlin counts down the top ten things people are looking forward to on Valentine's Day. A Message From Marlin: St. Patrick's Day Marlin finds all of the things that are green in The Pit, and then runs into a Leprechaun. A Message From Marlin: Easter Marlin hires a British man to help you find Easter Eggs... or find people. An Announcement From Marlin (a.k.a. A Message from Marlin: April Fool's Day) Marlin announces the sad news that the Marlin series is ending. After explaining that that is just an Apirl Fool's joke, one of Marlin's neighbor's from the Pit pulls pranks on everyone. Marlin tries to stop him by coming up with the best prank of all time... but is it not a joke at all? Ways Characters Have Died (Spoilers) * Ep. 1: Billybob was blown up in a car accident. * Ep. 2: A Warthog exploded in front of the man at the dunes and kills him. * Ep. 3: The drug dealer explodes with all of his drugs in a pool of exploding drug barrels. * Ep. 4: The Hotel worker is stuck by Marlin. * Ep. 5: Roberto accidentally kills himself with a mini-nuke while trying to kill Marlin; the Nurse blows herself up with a grenade, thinking it is fruit. * Ep. 6: One Spartan kills himself with a fusion core, the other killed by Marlin in a tank. The Mayor is killed with Marlin's Brute Shot. * Ep. 7: One Spartan is splattered by Marlin. * Ep. 8: The Ghost dealer is killed by boosting over trip mines, and the guy who thinks he's cool is killed by a sticky exploding next to some fusion coils. * Ep. 9: One cop is shot in the head, and after that, he is flamed by Marin's Grandma. * Ep. 10: The Tour Guide is splattered by the pink elite, and then the pink elite gets a tank dropped on him. * Ep. 11: The Scottish guy is killed by a rocket, and the coach and the team member are killed by stray Marlin rockets that he hit with his hammer. * Ep. 12: Marlin's students all end up killing each other while fooling around. * Ep. 13: Dr. Science and Dr. Bottletry are killed with a missile pod by Marlin. Episode Production Process The process of creating an entire episode can take up to a few days, and consists of three major parts. Part 1: "Puppeting" The creators of the show already have a list of the episodes for the season. They look at what episode they are to film next, and talk about what details should go into the episode. From there, they load up the Forged maps and start to act out all of the scenes for the episode. About 10% of the material they film does not end up in the final episode. Acting out these scenes is called "Puppeting". Part 2: Editing Layne, the head of Thomas Productions goes into Theater mode and films all of the scenes needed for the episode. He then captures all of the scenes in the puppeting stage onto a digital video camera, and uploads those scenes from the camera to a computer. He then uses a special editing software to edit the episode, while trying to keep it under 10 minutes. This is where unneeded scenes are cut. Part 3: Voices Layne, who voices Marlin, does all of his voices after editing is complete. He then calls over the other two members of Thomas Productions, and they record their voices for the characters that they played in the puppeting stage. Once this is complete, the episode is watched to make sure everything looks okay, and then it is released on YouTube. Running Jokes This show, along with many other shows, have running gags, or running jokes, that they use on the show. For example, every time Marlin has to pay a certain amount of money, it always ends up being 600 McBillion dollars. Another one is that everybody he meets will die (usually an explosion), except for Lemon Man and Grandma. Also, at the end of every episode, including the holiday shorts, if viewers watch after the credits, there is always a short clip of something funny that happened while filming, such as splattering the camera man or endlessly going through the mancannons on a Mongoose on Narrows. Trivia *The creators of Marlin the Elite decided to make a machinima in the summer of 2007. One of the creators made a test video, which apparently includes Marlin going crazy, and then telling the audience that he will give a tour of his house. This video takes place in the Halo 2 map Coagulation, although in the actual series, Marlin's house is in Headlong. Very few people have seen this "Intro to the series". *This machinima came to attention of a website called www.gruntsrus.com, and now sponsors Marlin the Elite. *Also, a fan from YouTube named "Birdyeye", also known as Cheddar, was permitted an appearance in an episode. Other fans may be able to be in an episode, planned for ep. 14. Thomas Productions has not yet released info on the story of this episode, beside that it has to do with something that most people find "delicious". *Episode 4 was one of the longest episodes, so the editor had to cut some of it out. Deleted scenes from this episode were released on YouTube shortly after episode 4 was released. *Thomas Productions apparently has a paper with short overviews of all the episodes they have planned to make for Season 2, and also have said that there will be a third season. *Lemon Man's house was created in Forge, in the same map as Marlin's house, however, Lemon Man's was Forged long after the original map was created. *Episode 15 and 16 are said to be very alike, and 16 may even be a sort of continuation of 15. Episode 16 is as far as Thomas Productions has revealed anything about. *The idea for a spin-off series was tossed around briefly but never mentioned again. *Thomas Productions Inc knows what every episode will be that are to be released in season 2, and some of season 3. *Marlin's emblem is a happy face. *Lemon Man's emblem is the skull king. *Grandma's emblem is a radioactive symbol (this was done on purpose as a joke). *Due to the fact that Kevin and Kyle (co-creators of the show) are not in any of the Holiday shorts, Layne (creator of the show) sometimes plays some of the recurring characters. For example, Kyle plays Marlin's grandma, but Layne played her in the Thanksgiving short. Kevin plays Lemon Man, but Layne played him in the April Fool's short. *Episode 12 had more scenes cut than any other episode, and to get as many scenes as possible into the episode, the Marlin theme at the beginning of the episode was altered slightly so that it was shorter. *Lemon Man's name was supposed to be revealed in episode 13, but that was changed. TP knows what his name will be though, and they can say that his initials are "FNK". Gallery